From Our Files

• March 4, 1948

Two Milwaukee trains failed to get through Hartley because of washouts in the east, one at Fort Atkins and one in Wisconsin. The Chicago train finally arrived the next morning at 6 a.m. The eastbound did not run.

Hartley students who were traveling by bus to attend the girls’ state basketball tournament game did not get through. Due to a snowstorm, the buses were forced to turn back at Fort Dodge. Some of the fans who went by car managed to get through to see the Hartley girls defeat Keswick, 51-31. Hartley didn’t lack for a cheering section, as the students from Charter Oak rooted for them strongly.

H.C. Cain, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., invented a milking system whereby 100 cows could be milked by two operators in an hour by using assembly line technique. Cain had farmed north of Hartley in the 1930s.

• March 1, 1973

Top winners in the Iowa Master Growers Contest in the Hartley area were Elwayne Jatho, soybeans, 56.45 bushels per acre; and Cloy Albert, corn, 148.32 bushels. The local contest was sponsored by the Hartley Kiwanis Club.

Eight Hartley High School students received Division I ratings at the district speech contest. They were Randy Otterbein, radio news announcing; Linda Baker and Darla Sittler, humorous acting; Terri Petersen, interpretative prose; Gloria Riessen, Joellen Buck and Melinda Wichmann, interpretive poetry; and Elsie Hahn, after dinner speaking.

Mrs. Gladys Smith retired from her part-time duties at the Hartley Post Office. She had been employed there since July of 1961.

• March 5, 1998

The establishment of an office in Milford by Security State Bank would not affect customers at the Hartley location. President Gale Bobolz stated that the Hartley bank would remain in operation and all records and bookkeeping would remain here.

Members of the Hartley City Council and the library board mutually agreed to delay a special election to approve construction and equipping of a new library. Unsettled issues surrounding the proposed site for a new library on Central Avenue led to the decision. The library board also announced that they were not in favor of a joint facility with the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn School District. Members felt a joint facility was not appropriate to the library’s situation.

From Our Files” is compiled by Sentinel-News sports editor/staff writer Mike Petersen.